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I'm taking a step away from books today to share one of my favorite recipes. This is the first in a new series I'm adding to My Book Retreat called Beyond Books, where I will share some of my favorite things, including recipes, travel destinations, gardening and more. Don't worry! I'll still try to tie it all back to books in some way!

I love my Crockpot and one of my favorite recipes is a very simple chicken soup that my whole family loves. After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver a couple years ago, I started getting most of my meat and vegetables from local farms or my own backyard. So for this recipe, I generally try to use a chicken from a local farm, as well as whatever vegetables I can get from the farmer's market or my garden. If you want to make this even better, make your own broth instead of using store-bought.

Jack Torrence has been struggling lately, but he's ready to turn his life around and reconnect with is wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny. So he takes a job as the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, which sits on a mountain in Colorado. Because of the harsh winters, they will be snowed in at the hotel for several months, but this will be the perfect time for Jack to focus on family and to finally finish the play he's been writing. The hotel has other plans.

The Shining
is a classic Stephen King novel. Most people I know have seen the movie, but I actually have not. I will say that I spent the entire time picturing Jack Nicholson in the role of the father, but the storyline was all new to me. I loved it. There's a lot of supernatural stuff going on in the story, from Danny's ability to read other people's minds, to the many ghosts of the hotel. But there was plenty of realism to make it interesting, particularly around the relationship between Jack, Wendy and Dann…

Good
morning. I hope you had time to do a lot of reading last week! I had a little time over the weekend as I traveled out of town for my brother's memorial service. But I haven't made as much progress in the books I'm reading as I would have liked. I think I'm at a point where the reading will pick up, though, so I'm sure I'll be starting something new very soon!

Reviews and Blog Posts
I got a couple reviews written last week, as well as a list of books that will soon be movies. I can't wait to see most of them!

Reading
I'm still reading The Shining
by Stephen King in memory of my brother, who passed away earlier this month. It's a bit different than I was expecting but I'm enjoying it. It's getting very freaky at this point! I also started reading
Gathering Blueby
Lois Lowry, which my son, who is 10, read recently.…

I've recently seen several lists of books that are being made into movies in 2015. It seems there are a lot more than usual this year, or perhaps I just haven't noticed this trend in recent years. As I read through the many lists, I found 10 books that I've read (or am going to read soon).

All of these will be released in theaters in the next year or so, and I'm very excited to see just about all of them. If you haven't read the books yet, get to it before the movies come out!

It
all starts with kindergarten orientation. Madeline has been through it
before and is ready for all the politics that go along with a group of
moms who all think their kids are special. Celeste is frazzled and
anxious about her very active twin boys starting kindergarten. And Jane,
a young single mother who just moved to town, is worried that her son
won't fit in with the other kids. These three women are all brought
together because of their children, but there's a lot more to each of
their stories.

Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty is a novel about friendship, marriage, motherhood and
all the little lies we tell each other every day. We get to see inside
each of the three women's lives, the good, the bad and the ugly. Jane is
sad and overly worried about her son, Ziggy. She has moved often and
never feels comfortable enough to settle down. Madeline and Celeste
befriend her and try to understand more about her past and her fears.

When Thomas wakes up, he is alone in an elevator. He knows his name but he can't remember anything else about who he is or why he is here. When the door opens, he finds himself in a place called The Glade that is surrounded by a massive maze. The only other people here are about 60 other boys who have created a community of their own. They explain that every 30 days, another boy arrives. But the day after Thomas arrives, a girl arrives with a note that changes everything.

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner is an action-packed dystopian young adult novel that kept the suspense going to the end. The world the boys built, with a council and different jobs for everyone was interesting. I also liked the premise that all of the boys' memories were wiped, so they didn't know where they came from or what was really happening. And the maze itself helped set this book apart from many other dystopian novels.

It was a fun survival story with plenty of suspense and excitement. However, I…

Good morning. I hope you had a fabulous week. The sun is shining brightly today and I think it's supposed to get up to about 60, so I'm in a great mood. It also helps that it's a holiday here, so I'm not working today. Instead, I'll be getting together with friends and taking the kids to see Penguins of Madagascar, followed by a trip to the playground to enjoy the weather.

Bloggiesta is continuing through today since it's a holiday. I've completed most of my list. I just have to write some reviews and put a few on Amazon, then I'll be done. Check my new pages:Books Read in 20142015 ChallengesBookish Links